Initiating action in the incidence of an under construction building collapse at imperial gardens in peer muchhalla in Zirakpur, the Local Government Department, Punjab, has suspended Superintendent Balwinder Singh, Junior Engineer Rajiv Kumar and Anil Kumar for grave negligence in discharge of their duties while the 5 other officers have been issued show cause notices. This was disclosed here today by the Local Government Minister, Punjab, Mr. Navjot Singh Sidhu in a statement.Mr. Sidhu further said that he had personally visited the site of the building collapse and had constituted a committee under the Director, Local Government Department Mr. Karnesh Sharma which also included Deputy Commissioner Mohali, Chief Engineer, Chief Vigilance Officer and a representative of Punjab Engineering College (PEC). The committee had asked Punjab Engineering College (PEC) to submit its technical report on the causes of collapse as well as suggesting remedial measures. The magisterial report and PEC report found the grave negligence in the construction as the primary cause for its collapse. Apart from this, the building owners didn't gave any notice regarding the commencing of construction work to the MC Zirakpur.
Mr. Sidhu further disclosed that the officers of the Municipal Council too indulged in gross negligence of their duty and did not bother to conduct checking or supervision of the building during its construction. For this, it has been decided to suspend Superintendent Balwinder Singh, Junior Engineer Rajiv Kumar and Anil Sharma along with charge sheeting them. It was the responsibility of these officers to keep a check at regular intervals on the construction work and report any violation to their senior officers. Besides these, 5 other supervisory officials namely Assistant Municipal Engineer Mr. Sukhwinder Singh, Municipal Engineer Gurpratap Singh, Superintending Engineer Kuldeep Verma and E.O. S.K. Grewal and Manveer Singh Gill have been issued show cause notices. The minister said that he would personally visit various places to take stock of the under construction works and warned of strict action against the owners in case any building is constructed in contravention of the rules.
The minister also said that as part of some of the remedial measures submission of structural drawings and structural stability certificate during the stage of submission of application would be mandatory, building construction beyond 3 storey structure would be supervised only by a qualified engineer while upto 3 storey could also be supervised by an architect. Furthermore, penal provisions would be introduced for buildings occupied without obtaining completion/occupation certificate and structural stability certificate. Not only this but the developer would be registered as promoter with the Department of Local Government for projects within the Urban Local Body (ULB) domain to ensure credibility of developers and an undertaking would be obtained from the owner at the time of submission of building plans to comply with the provisions of Municipal Building Bye-Laws and execution as per structural drawings and design and using materials as per relevant building codes by deploying qualified engineer and he would be liable to all risks during and after construction of building arising out of any defect.